Do you ever use automap marks?

[JudgeDeadd]

...or does anyone even remember they exist? :P

I typically use them to mark the location of a powerup I don't yet need.

[Doominator2]

automap what?

[scifista42]

I know they exist, I vaguely remember how to use them, but I don't use them at all while playing.

[Alfonzo]

I'd use them if they were clearly visible. They use the same graphic that indicates weapon pickups on the HUD, and that means big, bleary, indiscernible numbers all over my automap.

[plums]

I use them sometimes, to mark hub areas or important places especially in large maps where I find myself getting lost. Unfortunately they don't get saved in savegames in vanilla Doom. (Or Chocolate or Crispy.)

Alfonzo: I find it strange that ZDoom and even GZDoom uses that font for markers still, and keep the off-centre marking from vanilla. Lots of other ports don't do either of those things.

[Demon of the Well]

I do use them, once in a while, most often on an initial playthrough of a map that's clearly shaping up to be massive/labyrinthine.

The one automap feature I've never really found a real use for is the grid.

[AkiraZXE]

I couldn't even tell you how to place them. Really, I don't remember how to use any of the automap features. I've never really needed them, they're interesting features but I don't think they're all that useful.

[RadTang]

I haven't used them at all. Used them just once recently. To mark green armor for later (I still had some blue one).

[clamgor]

I've used it once or twice before.

[VGA]

After I recently discovered markers, i found they are very useful for marking locked doors so I don't get lost in big maps. Also, medipaks for later consumption!

[hawkwind]

plums said:

Unfortunately they don't get saved in savegames in vanilla Doom. (Or Chocolate or Crispy.)

Risen3D saves the markers in savegames. May well be the only port to do so AFAIK.

[Quasar]

hawkwind said:

Risen3D saves the markers in savegames. May well be the only port to do so AFAIK.

All BOOM-based ports save the markers. Thank Lee Killough.

[Clonehunter]

I didn't know any ticks existed

[Foxpup]

Demon of the Well said:

The one automap feature I've never really found a real use for is the grid.

You must be using a port that fixes the various blockmap bugs, then. In case you don't know, the automap grid is aligned to the blockmap, and knowing where the lines are helps more than a little bit. For example, it's impossible to punch an arachnotron unless there's a grid line directly between you and it.

[Demon of the Well]

So, I could use the grid to melee an arachnatron from top-down perspective in 2nd-level IDDT mode, or I could pause the game (or stand in a safe spot), look at the grid for a while, do some rough guesswork as to what gridlines on the map correspond to what landmarks in the environment, do some more guesswork as to the arachnatron's position relative to those landmarks (woe is me if he is genuinely ambulatory), and then possibly melee him with a statistically significant increase in efficiency than if I were to just wing it and swing at him blind.

Or I could just go find some more ammo or another friend for him to play with. Hmm, tough choice....


In seriousness, it has occurred to me that the grid might be situationally useful in helping to determine whether or not a possible strafejump/SR50 that is tricky to eyeball might be doable, but I've never had the gumption to actually use it that way.

[Ledillman]

I used them once by accident... once

[Tuxlar]

I used them on ED map12 to good effect.

[printz]

I use them to mark locked doors.

[Jaxxoon R]

Not enough buttons on a controller for that shit.

[PRIMEVAL]

Oh yeah, those exist, don't they? Heh...

[DaniJ]

Jaxxoon R said:

Not enough buttons on a controller for that shit.

Actually, there are more than enough on a typical 12 button gamepad, assuming the port you use supports "multi binding" (e.g., Doomsday's binding contexts).

[Blastfrog]

No, I've never found it to be a useful feature.

[40oz]

I tried getting in the habit of marking locked doors and ammo stashes with it, but generally when I'm playing I'm recording demos, and try to avoid making a boring watch by playing around with the automap

[MFG38]

Nope.

[Memfis]

Demon of the Well said:

The one automap feature I've never really found a real use for is the grid.

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1154706

[Avoozl]

Never really bothered to really, for the longest time I didn't know they even existed but even once I did I never tried to use them.

[LockeRequiem]

I type in IDDT twice, if that's what you mean...

Also, does anyone use the Grid?

[Salt-Man Z]

I like to use the map marks to identify powerups I don't need yet or ammo caches I can come back to later. I just wish I could change the font color to make the marks more visible (with the default GZDoom automap settings, they're super hard to see.)

[Varis Alpha]

i know of the feature, but i never really found it to be very useful. if i want to know something more about the map, i just IDDT twice.

[Olroda]

Sure, I use map markers, but only if the map itself is decidedly labyrinthine. "Limbo", E3M7, springs to mind.